


Coming Back To You

by AstoundinglyMade



Series: late night musings [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adulthood, M/M, Minor Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood, Single Parents, Song Lyrics, Songfic, Step-parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-10 23:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20536700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstoundinglyMade/pseuds/AstoundinglyMade
Summary: Sirius resettles a startled Teddy after he wakes in the night by singing him back to sleep, while reflecting on how he finally found his family.





	Coming Back To You

"I'll go." Sirius mouths the words in Remus' direction, waving him back into his seat. They both still, frozen half out of their chairs, as Teddy babbles again and attempts to resettle. "I'll be right back." He's never been happier for all the trial and error he went through with Harry as a baby than he is these nights as he expertly navigates his way down the hall following the well practiced steps that let him avoid each creaky board and loose nail.

The door is open, which is likely what's keeping him unsettled, but also what they're relying on to know he's okay. He's learning that everything about toddlers is double edged like this. In truth, he'd love to get a monitor, he almost did yesterday, but he's been successfully sneaking Teddy's things over from Remus' place one by one, just slowly enough to avoid detection, and he'd hate to ruin a good thing.

Teddy kicks both his legs up together dislodging the last of his blankets as Sirius arrives at the side of what he's lovingly dubbed The Fortress. The first time they'd stayed over, unplanned, after the party that went too late, the three of them had just crashed in the big bed, Teddy curled up between them. Their bodies acting as guard rails between him and the floor.

"Not enough," Remus had said in the morning. "If I'm going to go through the hassle of trying to get Ted ready for the day somewhere that isn't home, I'd rather do it on a full night's sleep with you next to me." That very evening Sirius had hauled home James' old camp bed and set it up along the wall under the window. These days, when they sleep over, Teddy is protected from falls by an elaborate construction of bolsters and an improvised rail, and Sirius gets Remus all to himself.

"Maybe I'm still hurting.." Leonard Cohen isn't exactly your usual lullaby fare, but the register is low enough to suit him, and the pacing fits, plus Sirius doesn't exactly know any lullabies anyway. No matter, Ted's always seemed to like whatever he picks. Moving slowly, adding one finger at a time, Sirius presses his hand to the toddler's chest marveling, as he does every time, at how he can reach both sides of that tiny rib cage with just the span of his fingers. "... You know that I still love you, it's just that I can't speak..."

The key here is monotony and stillness, two things he never had patience for when he was younger. The low rumble of his voice smoothes over the sound of the cars outside, the siren that passes. The weight of his hand anchors, offers stability, in exactly the way he will feel it later when Remus presses into him, chest to back, keeping all the parts of him together. "Springtime starts but then it stops, in the name of something new…"

Four months ago they were Dora & Teddy & Remus, and Remus & Teddy and sometimes Sirius, but these days it's Sirius & Remus & Teddy & Dora more often than not, and he likes it. How lucky to have all his favourite people close by. How perfect to have them all devoted to this one little boy. "... when you choose the precious few, who've left their pride on the other side…"

Teddy's breaths are deep now, steady and comforting under his hand. He lifts it, the reverse of the way he set it down. Heel of his palm, thumb, fingers, lifting the smallest at the last. Teddy sniffles once and turns his head, and Sirius makes his way back out.

"Cohen again?" Remus is in the kitchen swapping tumblers for mugs, the kettle in hand.

"Always. You know he likes it." Sirius comes to stand behind him, runs his hands up Remus' chest to hold them together. "Even in your arms, I know I'll never get it right…," he sings softly into the back of Remus' right shoulder. "He loves that one."

Remus doesn't sing, doesn't like to, never has, but he is a keeper of words. "I looked for you in everyone, and they called me on that too. I lived alone, but I was only coming back to you."

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @astoundinglymade, because you are. Astoundingly made, that is. We all are, it's wild.


End file.
